Neuroanatomical Evidence for Distinct Cognitive and Affective Components of Self

Self-reflection across time: cortical midline structures differentiate between present and past selves

The processing of personal changes across time and the ability to differentiate between representations of present and past selves are crucial for developing a mature sense of identity. In this study, we explored the neural correlates of self-reflection across time using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). College undergraduates were asked to reflect on their own psychological characteristics and those of an intimate other, for both the present time period (i.e. at college) and a past time period (i.e. high school years) that involved significant personal changes. Cortical midline structures (CMS) were commonly recruited by the four reflective tasks (reflecting on the present self, past self, present other and past other), relative to a control condition (making valence judgments). More importantly, however, the degree of activity in CMS also varied significantly according to the target of reflection, with the ventral and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex being more recruited when reflecting on the present self than when reflecting on the past self or when reflecting on the other person. These findings suggest that CMS may contribute to differentiate between representations of present and past selves.

Culture-sensitive neural substrates of human cognition: a transcultural neuroimaging approach

Our brains and minds are shaped by our experiences, which mainly occur in the context of the culture in which we develop and live. Although psychologists have provided abundant evidence for diversity of human cognition and behaviour across cultures, the question of whether the neural correlates of human cognition are also culture-dependent is often not considered by neuroscientists. However, recent transcultural neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that one's cultural background can influence the neural activity that underlies both high- and low-level cognitive functions. The findings provide a novel approach by which to distinguish culture-sensitive from culture-invariant neural mechanisms of human cognition.

The resting brain and our self: self-relatedness modulates resting state neural activity in cortical midline structures

The resting brain shows high neural activity in various regions, the default-mode network, chief among them the cortical midline structures (CMS). The psychological correlate of high resting state neural activity in CMS remains however unclear though speculatively it has been associated with processing of internally-oriented self-relatedness. We used functional MRI to examine internally-oriented self-relatedness during the resting state period. This was indirectly done by letting subjects perceive emotional pictures followed by a fixation cross; the very same pictures were then rated subjectively according to their degree of self-relatedness in a postscanning session. This allowed us to correlate the picture ratings of self-relatedness with signal changes in the subsequent resting state period, i.e. fixation period. The emotional pictures' degree of self-relatedness parametrically modulated subsequent resting state signal changes in various CMS, including ventro- and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. This modulation could be distinguished from effects of emotion dimensions (e.g. valence, intensity) and evoked effects of self-relatedness during the stimulus period itself the latter being observed rather in subcortical regions, e.g. amygdala, ventral striatum, and tectum. In sum, our findings suggest that resting state neural activity in CMS is parametrically and specifically modulated by the preceding stimulus's degree of self-relatedness. This lends further support to the presumed involvement of these regions in processing internally-oriented self-relatedness as distinguished from externally-oriented self-relatedness.

Functional grouping and cortical-subcortical interactions in emotion: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies

We performed an updated quantitative meta-analysis of 162 neuroimaging studies of emotion using a novel multi-level kernel-based approach, focusing on locating brain regions consistently activated in emotional tasks and their functional organization into distributed functional groups, independent of semantically defined emotion category labels (e.g., "anger," "fear"). Such brain-based analyses are critical if our ways of labeling emotions are to be evaluated and revised based on consistency with brain data. Consistent activations were limited to specific cortical sub-regions, including multiple functional areas within medial, orbital, and inferior lateral frontal cortices. Consistent with a wealth of animal literature, multiple subcortical activations were identified, including amygdala, ventral striatum, thalamus, hypothalamus, and periaqueductal gray. We used multivariate parcellation and clustering techniques to identify groups of co-activated brain regions across studies. These analyses identified six distributed functional groups, including medial and lateral frontal groups, two posterior cortical groups, and paralimbic and core limbic/brainstem groups. These functional groups provide information on potential organization of brain regions into large-scale networks. Specific follow-up analyses focused on amygdala, periaqueductal gray (PAG), and hypothalamic (Hy) activations, and identified frontal cortical areas co-activated with these core limbic structures. While multiple areas of frontal cortex co-activated with amygdala sub-regions, a specific region of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC, Brodmann's Area 9/32) was the only area co-activated with both PAG and Hy. Subsequent mediation analyses were consistent with a pathway from dmPFC through PAG to Hy. These results suggest that medial frontal areas are more closely associated with core limbic activation than their lateral counterparts, and that dmPFC may play a particularly important role in the cognitive generation of emotional states.

Motivation to do well enhances responses to errors and self-monitoring

Humans are unique in being able to reflect on their own performance. For example, we are more motivated to do well on a task when we are told that our abilities are being evaluated. We set out to study the effect of self-motivation on a working memory task. By telling one group of participants that we were assessing their cognitive abilities, and another group that we were simply optimizing task parameters, we managed to enhance the motivation to do well in the first group. We matched the performance between the groups. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, the motivated group showed enhanced activity when making errors. This activity was extensive, including the anterior paracingulate cortex, lateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex. These areas showed enhanced interaction with each other. The anterior paracingulate activity correlated with self-image ratings, and overlapped with activity when participants explicitly reflected upon their performance. We suggest that the motivation to do well leads to treating errors as being in conflict with one's ideals for oneself.

The social-emotional processing stream: five core constructs and their translational potential for schizophrenia and beyond

BACKGROUND

Cognitive neuroscience approaches to translational research have made great strides toward understanding basic mechanisms of dysfunction and their relation to cognitive deficits, such as thought disorder in schizophrenia. The recent emergence of Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience has paved the way for similar progress to be made in explaining the mechanisms underlying the social and emotional dysfunctions (i.e., negative symptoms) of schizophrenia and that characterize virtually all DSM Axis I and II disorders more broadly.

METHODS

This article aims to provide a roadmap for this work by distilling from the emerging literature on the neural bases of social and emotional abilities a set of key constructs that can be used to generate questions about the mechanisms of clinical dysfunction in general and schizophrenia in particular.

RESULTS

To achieve these aims, the first part of this article sketches a framework of five constructs that comprise a social-emotional processing stream. The second part considers how future basic research might flesh out this framework and translational work might relate it to schizophrenia and other clinical populations.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the review suggests there is more basic research needed for each construct, two in particular--one involving the bottom-up recognition of social and emotional cues, the second involving the use of top-down processes to draw mental state inferences--are most ready for translational work.

Risk for depression is associated with neural biases in emotional categorisation

Negative biases in emotional processing are a major characteristic of depression. Recent research has shown that such negative biases are evident in high risk individuals even in the absence of personal history of depression, suggesting that they may serve as key vulnerability markers of depression. However, the neural basis of these behavioural observations has not been fully explored. This study therefore aimed to (1) illustrate the neural processes involved in the categorisation of emotional personality-trait words; and (2) examine whether these neural mechanisms are biased towards negative information in high risk individuals. Risk for depression was defined by high neuroticism (N). We recruited a sample of high risk (high N) and low risk (low N) never-depressed young adults. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was acquired during the categorisation and memory for positive and negative self-referent personality-trait words (e.g. honest, rude). High risk volunteers showed greater responses in the right superior parietal cortex than low risk volunteers specifically during the categorisation of negative words. Moreover, neuroticism score was positively correlated with neural responses in the left anterior cingulate during the categorisation of negative words but negatively correlated within the same region during the retrieval of these words. These results highlight a role of the fronto-parietal circuitry in emotional processing and further suggest that negative biases in these neural processes may be involved in risk for depression.

Are attractive people rewarding? Sex differences in the neural substrates of facial attractiveness

The current study examined the neural substrates of facial attractiveness judgments. Based on the extant behavioral literature, it was hypothesized that brain regions involved in identifying the potential reward value of a stimulus would be more active when men viewed attractive women than when women viewed attractive men. To test this hypothesis, we conducted an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment during which participants provided explicit attractiveness judgments for faces of the opposite sex. These individual ratings were subsequently used to perform analyses aimed at identifying the brain regions preferentially responsive to attractive faces for both sex groups. The results revealed that brain regions comprising the putative reward circuitry (e.g., nucleus accumbens [NAcc], orbito-frontal cortex [OFC]) showed a linear increase in activation with increased judgments of attractiveness. However, further analysis also revealed sex differences in the recruitment of OFC, which distinguished attractive and unattractive faces only for male participants.

Functional abnormalities of the default network during self- and other-reflection in autism

Recent studies of autism have identified functional abnormalities of the default network during a passive resting state. Since the default network is also typically engaged during social, emotional and introspective processing, dysfunction of this network may underlie some of the difficulties individuals with autism exhibit in these broad domains. In the present experiment, we attempted to further delineate the nature of default network abnormality in autism using experimentally constrained social and introspective tasks. Thirteen autism and 12 control participants were scanned while making true/false judgments for various statements about themselves (SELF condition) or a close other person (OTHER), and pertaining to either psychological personality traits (INTERNAL) or observable characteristics and behaviors (EXTERNAL). In the ventral medial prefrontal cortex/ventral anterior cingulate cortex, activity was reduced in the autism group across all judgment conditions and also during a resting condition, suggestive of task-independent dysfunction of this region. In other default network regions, overall levels of activity were not different between groups. Furthermore, in several of these regions, we found group by condition interactions only for INTERNAL/EXTERNAL judgments, and not SELF/OTHER judgments, suggestive of task-specific dysfunction. Overall, these results provide a more detailed view of default network functionality and abnormality in autism.

Processing of social and monetary rewards in the human striatum

Despite an increasing focus on the neural basis of human decision making in neuroscience, relatively little attention has been paid to decision making in social settings. Moreover, although human social decision making has been explored in a social psychology context, few neural explanations for the observed findings have been considered. To bridge this gap and improve models of human social decision making, we investigated whether acquiring a good reputation, which is an important incentive in human social behaviors, activates the same reward circuitry as monetary rewards. In total, 19 subjects participated in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments involving monetary and social rewards. The acquisition of one's good reputation robustly activated reward-related brain areas, notably the striatum, and these overlapped with the areas activated by monetary rewards. Our findings support the idea of a "common neural currency" for rewards and represent an important first step toward a neural explanation for complex human social behaviors.

Reduced posterior mesofrontal cortex activation by risky rewards in substance-dependent patients

Substance-dependent individuals show disadvantageous decision-making, as well as alterated frontocortical recruitment when performing experimental tasks. We investigated whether substance-dependent patients (SDP) would show blunted recruitment of posterior mesofrontal cortex (PMC) by a conflict between concurrently increasing reward and risk of penalty in a monetary game of "chicken." SDP and controls performed: motor control (no reward) trials, guaranteed reward trials in which reward was not at risk, and risky trials where subjects were required to terminate their reward accrual before a secret varying time limit or else "bust" and forfeit that trial's winnings (low penalty) or the current trial's winnings plus an equal amount of previous winnings (high penalty). Reward accrual duration at risk of "busting" correlated negatively with trait neuroticism. The contrast between winning guaranteed reward versus non-reward activated the caudate head bilaterally in SDP but not controls. Accumulation of money at risk of low- or high-penalty (contrasted with accumulating guaranteed money) activated the PMC in both groups, but with a greater magnitude and more anterior extent in controls. Pre-decision signal increase in a PMC volume of interest negatively correlated with risk-taking in low-penalty trials, and was blunted in SDP relative to controls under both penalty conditions after controlling for individual differences in actual risk-taking and the higher neuroticism of SDP. These data suggest that SDP are characterized by a combination of: (a) striatal hypersensitivity to reward, and (b) under-recruitment of the specialized conflict-monitoring circuitry of the PMC when reward entails potential penalties.

The Neuroscience of Stigma and Stereotype Threat

This article reviews social neuroscience research on the experience of stigma from the target's perspective. More specifically, we discuss several research programs that employ electroencephalography, event-related potentials, or functional magnetic resonance imaging methods to examine neural correlates of stereotype and social identity threat. We present neuroimaging studies that show brain activation related to the experience of being stereotyped and ERP studies that shed light on the cognitive processes underlying social identity processes. Among these are two projects from our own lab. The first project reveals the important role of the neurocognitive conflict-detection system in stereotype threat effects, especially as it pertains to stereotype threat `spillover'. The second project examines the role of automatic ingroup evaluations as a neural mediator between social identity threats and compensatory ingroup bias. We conclude with a discussion of the benefits, limitations, and unique contributions of social neuroscience to our understanding of stigma and social identity threat.

Self, mother and abstract other: an fMRI study of reflective social processing

Using fMRI, we studied the neural correlates of self-referential processing by comparing BOLD signal changes during self and mother conditions of a self-reference effect (SRE) task. Conjunction analysis of these two conditions showed several common areas of significant activation, including the medial aspects of the superior frontal gyri, left inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral temporal poles, left superior temporal sulcus and left precuneus. The locations of the 7 strongest peak activations for the self condition and for the mother condition were compared on a subject-by-subject basis in native space. Of the 119 pairs of peaks explored, 87% were located within 2 voxels of each other, demonstrating the commonality of the brain regions subserving both self- and mother-referential processing within an individual subject. In group analyses of the self-referential vs. mother-referential contrast, small differences in activation strength were observed in the left superior frontal sulcus, right cingulate gyrus and the left fusiform gyrus. Greater activation for mother than for self was observed in bilateral temporal lobes. Subjects also performed a social attribution task (SAT) in which they inferred mental states about interacting geometric shapes. Activations from this visual theory of mind task were compared with the activations demonstrated during self-referential processing. Striking similarities were found, including overlapping activations in bilateral medial prefrontal cortices, left inferior frontal gyrus and precuneus. These data suggest that reflective analysis of self, mother and abstract others relies predominantly on the same neural architecture.

Complementary circuits connecting the orbital and medial prefrontal networks with the temporal, insular, and opercular cortex in the macaque monkey

The origin and termination of axonal connections between the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex (OMPFC) and the temporal, insular, and opercular cortex have been analyzed with anterograde and retrograde axonal tracers, injected in the OMPFC or temporal cortex. The results show that there are two distinct, complementary, and reciprocal neural systems, related to the previously defined "orbital" and "medial" prefrontal networks. The orbital prefrontal network, which includes areas in the central and lateral part of the orbital cortex, is connected with vision-related areas in the inferior temporal cortex (especially area TEav) and the fundus and ventral bank of the superior temporal sulcus (STSf/v), and with somatic sensory-related areas in the frontal operculum (OPf) and dysgranular insular area (Id). No connections were found between the orbital network and auditory areas. The orbital network is also connected with taste and olfactory cortical areas and the perirhinal cortex and appears to be involved in assessment of sensory objects, especially food. The medial prefrontal network includes areas on the medial surface of the frontal lobe, medial orbital areas, and two caudolateral orbital areas. It is connected with the rostral superior temporal gyrus (STGr) and the dorsal bank of the superior temporal sulcus (STSd). This region is rostral to the auditory parabelt areas, and there are only relatively light connections between the auditory areas and the medial network. This system, which is also connected with the entorhinal, parahippocampal, and cingulate/retrosplenial cortex, may be involved in emotion and other self-referential processes.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of error processing dysfunctions in major depressive disorder

CONTEXT

Depression is characterized by executive dysfunctions and abnormal reactions to errors; however, little is known about the brain mechanisms that underlie these deficits.

OBJECTIVE

To examine whether abnormal reactions to errors in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) are associated with exaggerated paralimbic activation and/or a failure to recruit subsequent cognitive control to account for mistakes in performance.

DESIGN

Between February 15, 2005, and January 19, 2006, we recorded 128-channel event-related potentials while study participants performed a Stroop task, modified to incorporate performance feedback.

SETTING

Patients with MDD and healthy comparison subjects were recruited from the general community.

PARTICIPANTS

Study participants were 20 unmedicated patients with MDD and 20 demographically matched comparison subjects.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

The error-related negativity and error positivity were analyzed through scalp and source localization analyses. Functional connectivity analyses were conducted to investigate group differences in the spatiotemporal dynamics of brain mechanisms that underlie error processing.

RESULTS

Relative to comparison subjects, patients with MDD displayed significantly lower accuracy after incorrect responses, larger error-related negativity, and higher current density in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) (Brodmann area 10/32) 80 milliseconds after committing an error. Functional connectivity analyses revealed that for the comparison subjects, but not the patients with MDD, rostral ACC and medial PFC activation 80 milliseconds after committing an error predicted left dorsolateral PFC (Brodmann area 8/9) activation 472 milliseconds after committing an error.

CONCLUSIONS

Unmedicated patients with MDD showed reduced accuracy and potentiated error-related negativity immediately after committing errors, highlighting dysfunctions in the automatic detection of unfavorable performance outcomes. New analytic procedures allowed us to show that abnormal reaction to committing errors was accompanied by hyperactivation in rostral ACC and medial PFC regions 80 milliseconds after committing errors and a failure to recruit dorsolateral PFC-based cognitive control. Future studies are warranted to investigate whether these dysfunctions might foster the emergence and maintenance of negative processing biases and thus increase vulnerability to depression.

The Negative Consequences of Threat

This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify the neural structures associated with women's underperformance on math tasks. Although women in a control condition recruited neural networks that are associated with mathematical learning (i.e., angular gyrus, left parietal and prefrontal cortex), women who were reminded of gender stereotypes about math ability did not recruit these regions, and instead revealed heightened activation in a neural region associated with social and emotional processing (ventral anterior cingulate cortex).

Dissociating affective evaluation and social cognitive processes in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex

In recent studies, various regions of the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) have been implicated in at least two potentially different mental functions: reasoning about the minds of other people (social cognition) and processing reward related information (affective evaluation). In this study, we test whether the activation in a specific area of the vmPFC, the para-anterior cingulate cortex (PACC), correlates with the reward value of stimuli in general or is specifically associated with social cognition. Participants performed a time estimation task with trial-to-trial feedback in which reward and socialcontext were manipulated separately. Reward was manipulated by giving either positive or negative feedback in the form of small squirts of fluid delivered orally. Social context was manipulated by instructing participants that positive and negative feedback was determined by another person or a computer. The data demonstrate a main effect of feedback, but not social context, in the PACC, suggesting that this area of the vmPFC serves a general function in evaluating and/or representing reward value. In addition, activity in a more anterior subregion of the vmPFC demonstrated reward-related sensitivity only in the social context. Another area that showed a similar interaction was the subgenual cingulate, but this region was only sensitive to negative feedback in the social condition. These findings suggest that, within the vmPFC, the PACC subserves primarily an affective function, whereas in other regions social context can modulate affective responses.

Neural correlates of the processing of another's mistakes: a possible underpinning for social and observational learning

Recent work suggests that a generalized error monitoring circuit, which shows heightened activation when one commits an error in goal-directed behavior, may exhibit synonymous activity when one watches another person commit a similar goal-directed error. In the present study, fMRI was utilized to compare and contrast those regions that show sensitivity to the performance, and to the observation, of committed errors. Participants performed a speeded go/no-go task and also observed a video of another person performing the same task. Dorsal anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal cortex, and supplementary motor regions were commonly activated to both performed and observed errors, providing evidence for common neural circuitry underlying the processing of one's own and another's mistakes. In addition, several regions, including inferior parietal cortex and anterorostral and ventral cinguli, did not show activation during performed errors, but were instead uniquely activated by the observation of another's mistakes. The unique nature of these 'observer-related' activations suggests that these regions, while of potential import towards recognition of another's errors, are not core to circuitry underlying error monitoring. Rather, we suggest that these regions may represent components of a distributed network important for the representation and interpretation of complex social actions.

Is our self based on reward? Self-relatedness recruits neural activity in the reward system

Every organism has to evaluate incoming stimuli according to their current and future significance. The immediate value of stimuli is coded by the reward system, but the processing of their long-term relevance implements a valuation system that implicates self-relatedness. The neuronal relationship between reward and self-relatedness remains unclear though. Using event-related functional MRI, we investigated whether self-relatedness induces neural activity in the reward system. Self-relatedness induced signal changes in the same regions that were recruited during reward including the bilateral nucleus accumbens (NACC), ventral tegmental area (VTA) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). The fMRI signal time courses revealed no differences in early BOLD signals between reward and self-relatedness. In contrast, both conditions differed in late BOLD signals with self-relatedness showing higher signal intensity. In sum, our findings indicate sustained recruitment of the reward system during self-relatedness. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of the reward-based nature of our self.

Developmental differences in posterior mesofrontal cortex recruitment by risky rewards

Might increased risk taking in adolescence result in part from underdeveloped conflict-monitoring circuitry in the posterior mesofrontal cortex (PMC)? Adults and adolescents underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a monetary game of "chicken." As subjects watched ostensible winnings increase over time, they decided when to press a button to bank their winnings, knowing that if they did not stop pursuing money reward before a secret varying time limit, they would "bust" and either lose the money accrued on the current trial (low-penalty trials) or forfeit trial winnings plus a portion of previous winnings (high-penalty trials). Reward accrual at risk of low penalty (contrasted with guaranteed reward) activated the PMC in adults but not in adolescents. Across all subjects, this activation (1) correlated positively with age but negatively with risk exposure and (2) was greater when subjects busted on the previous low-penalty trial. Reward accrual at risk of high penalty was terminated sooner and recruited the PMC in both adults and adolescents when contrasted with guaranteed reward. Predecision PMC activation in the high-penalty trials was significantly reduced in trials when subjects busted. These data suggest that (1) under threat of an explicit severe penalty, recruitment of the PMC is similar in adolescents and adults and correlates with error avoidance, and (2) when potential penalties for a rewarding behavior are mild enough to encourage some risk taking, predecision PMC activation by a reward/risk conflict is sensitive to previous error outcomes, predictive of risk-aversive behavior in that trial, and underactive in adolescents.

Seeing yourself in a positive light: Brain correlates of the self-positivity bias

Individuals are found to have better recall for self-referent information than other types of information. However, attribution research has shown that self-reference is highly correlated with emotional valence. The present study attempted to identify and separate the processing of self-reference and emotional valence using ERPs. Participants performed a two-choice task, judging the self-referential content of positive and negative words. Reaction times revealed an interaction between self-reference and emotional valence. Faster responses occurred after self-positive and non-self negative words as compared to self-negative and non-self-positive words. A similar interaction was identified in ERP waveforms in the time range of the N400 component at fronto-central electrode sites, with larger N400 amplitudes for words outwith the self-positivity bias. Thus, the size of the N400 may indicate the extent to which information is discrepant with the individual's self-concept.

The default self: feeling good or being right?

The medial prefrontal cortex exhibits a higher resting metabolic rate than many other brain regions. This physiological default mode might support a psychological default state of chronic self-evaluation that helps people consider their strengths and weaknesses when planning future actions. However, a recent imaging study that relates medial prefrontal cortex activity to self-evaluation raises new questions about whether the psychological default mode of self-evaluation is best characterized by accurate self-evaluations or by feeling good about yourself.

Dissociable Medial Prefrontal Contributions to Judgments of Similar and Dissimilar Others

Human social interaction requires the recognition that other people are governed by the same types of mental states-beliefs, desires, intentions-that guide one's own behavior. We used functional neuroimaging to examine how perceivers make mental state inferences when such self-other overlap can be assumed (when the other is similar to oneself) and when it cannot (when the other is dissimilar from oneself). We observed a double dissociation such that mentalizing about a similar other engaged a region of ventral mPFC linked to self-referential thought, whereas mentalizing about a dissimilar other engaged a more dorsal subregion of mPFC. The overlap between judgments of self and similar others suggests the plausibility of "simulation" accounts of social cognition, which posit that perceivers can use knowledge about themselves to infer the mental states of others.